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Evolution—It’s child’s play!

God could have communicated evolution easily.

Published: 22 November 2011 (GMT+10)

“Genesis should not be read as real history. It is just a poetic account of
the creation of the universe given to the simple and unscientific Hebrew culture
who would not have understood the sophisticated theory of evolution”.

Such statements are commonly used among theistic evolutionists (those believing
God used evolution to create) to convince others that Biblical creationism is untenable
in our modern scientific world. A Canadian book designed to teach evolution to children
(ages 8–13) may come as a surprise to them.

Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be (by author Daniel Loxton)
won the 2010 Lane Anderson Award in the young reader science category and was a
finalist for the prestigious Silver Birch Award. It’s receiving rave reviews
from skeptic and pro-evolution groups.

‘Genesis should not be read as real history…’. Such statements
are commonly used among theistic evolutionists to convince others that Biblical
creationism is untenable in our modern scientific world.

An excellent resource for both students and teachers … and fills a gap in
books about evolution for this age group.
—National Science Teachers Association

Loxton hits the key concepts perfectly, and without being stuffy about it.
—Eugenie Scott (Executive Director, National Center for Science Education)

Explains the facts simply without distorting the science for the young reader.
—Skeptic’s Dictionary1

The book review on the overtly atheistic Skeptic.com states; “Can something
as complex and wondrous as the natural world be explained by a simple theory? The
answer is yes … ”2

Similarly, if evolution was the way God created why couldn’t Moses have written
something like; “In the beginning the Lord created the first living thing,
and this creature’s offspring changed slowly over time, eventually becoming
every living thing across the entire earth”. There were also many Hebrew words
that God could have used to communicate vast eons of time—if that’s
what He had intended. Surely adults comprehending complex laws like those in Deuteronomy
could have understood such straightforward concepts?

‘…why couldn’t Moses have written something like; ‘In the
beginning the Lord created the first living thing, and this creature’s offspring
changed slowly over time, eventually becoming every living thing across the entire
earth’.

Such ideas are now taught to kindergarten age children all over the western
world, such as Loxton’s own son.

“I’ve got a five-year-old son and when I tell him that he’s actually
part of the same family as everything else on Earth that has ever existed, that
understanding kind of shines out of his eyes … ”3

What’s his key to communicating with young people?

‘The trick to writing for kids, he said, is not to dumb it down. “They
just need the best information available,” he said. “Keep it simple,
but make it true.”’4

We agree: that’s why we produce Creation magazine, with accurate
material for all ages!

Perhaps doubters in a plain reading of Genesis should understand we do not need
to look to sources outside of the Bible to interpret it. God kept it simple, and
true!

Readers’ comments

You make an excellent point in your article. Not only is evolution a simple concept, it’s simplistic. If the ancient philosophers could understand it, there’s no reason Moses, or the earlier patriarchs couldn’t.
-In fact, on the face of it, it’s the Genesis account that is far harder to understand. In fact many of our clergy and academics say that they can’t understand it at all, and claim it’s impossible.

Hi Mike, thanks for your email.
I disagree with your assessment (as well as the clergy and academics that do) that Genesis is hard to comprehend. God could hardly have made it simpler to understand as He gave us a blow by blow account of what He did and when. The phrase “God created the heavens and the earth” is very easy to understand conceptually. An all powerful and eternal being could easily create whatever He wished in whatever fashion He wanted, which is what Genesis explains. Many ancient philosophers did understand the basic concept easily (a God creating), as did Moses and the earlier patriarchs (the God of the Bible creating in a specific way).
Those saying Genesis is convoluted are typically doing so because of their attempt to syncretise supposed ‘millions of years’ of earth history and/or evolution with the Genesis creation account. It is only when people start arguing (for example) “Does a day really means a day?” etc (because of their pre-belief in millions of years of earth history) that Genesis becomes ‘hard to understand’.
Evolution (the idea that everything makes itself through natural processes) is also easy to understand conceptually, it just fails to stand up to close scrutiny scientifically and logically.

Acts 7:22 says that “Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians,” and the Egyptians believed that life evolved out of the Nile, so Moses certainly was not ignorant of evolution, yet he presented the origin of life in terms of special creation.

The author’s point regarding the laws spelled out in Deuteronomy is well taken. Usually, when someone says those “primitive tribes” couldn’t understand something, the claim is nothing but generational snobbery. We’re modern, so we’re smart. They’re ancient, so they’re stupid. But they were the ones who learned complicated laws that required following to the letter, sometimes under pain of their own deaths. Modern folks can’t even read through them without dozing off. Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll file it away to use the next time somebody hauls out that tired old argument. And, anyone who uses the “Genesis isn’t real history” argument will find himself from then on defending God from charges of lying. After all, if it isn’t real history, it’s false history.

Evolution is a theory produced by sinful people in a sinful world. Their foundation lies in sin and therefore the evolutionist cannot imagine a world without sin, pure and undefiled. There is nothing unscientific about Adam and Eve’s world, they had the greatest teacher ever, God Himself. We know that Adam must have been very intelligent because God gave him the task of naming each animal according to its nature. I think that this is something very few people would be able to do. Not only did he have to discern and understand the nature of each animal but then he had to come up with a word that described that nature and name the animal. There is nothing pre-scientific about this. Our brains are stunted and its growth and development are affected by sin. I think that Adam’s thoughts and ideas can easily be compared with any person you care to name today. Solomon was given some of that original wisdom by God and he was able to understand all things, why I would not be surprised if he could converse very intelligently with a man like Einstein about the Theory of Relativity. I am convinced that if Darwin had been able to talk with Solomon that Darwin would have quickly been shown the error in his theory. The quagmire of data that the evolutionists produce today never can nor will it ever support the lie of evolution. Their best statement is that most of the world’s best scientists agree so therefore what we have postulated in the Theory of Evolution must be true and the exceptions prove only its validity. But there is only one Truth, and is the revelation given to us in God’s Word by God Himself.
Thank you for your excellent magazine.

I believe one of the greatest obstacles to the acceptance of the literal truth of the record of creation is that mankind refuses to use the same standard assessing Gods truth as he does mans truth. For example, my grandson asks me a question, I answer he finds I’m right, he does it again with same result, and again and again, He learns that not only am I correct but consistently truthful, and so he treats my words and opinion with respect, belief if you will, is this not how we test the truthfulness of any other “person” Why do we afford God the same courtesy, to test Gods word. God said during creation that he placed “two great lights in the sky, one to rule the day and one to rule the night, and the stars also”, a simple test, just as my grandson tested me, Go out ,test the Lord God if you dare, look and see if the first things the Lord God said were true, for if they are not then we as “Christians” have no hope our faith is groundless, the rest of the word of God including his promise of salvation is dead in the water. “FOR EVER O LORD THY WORD IS SETTLED IN HEAVEN”

I think the idea of the ancient Hebrews not being able to understand complex ideas is not borne out by the facts.

There is a book that is older than Genesis—Job. In Job some very complex theological ideas are presented of resurrection without reincarnation. So if the ancients who lived before the book of Genesis can understand such complex ideas, surely those reading the completed book of Genesis could understand the less complex ideas written there.

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